The present invention relates to an absorbent product such as a sanitary napkin, a panty liner, an incontinence protector, or similar, intended during use to be placed in the crotch region of a user in order to collect and absorb emitted body fluids, which has means for fastening inside a pair of under-pants, which product comprises an upper part intended during use of the product to be facing towards the user, as well as a lower part intended during use of the product to be facing away from the user.
Products of this type are of fairly small size and are intended to be worn inside a pair of underpants and, during use, to be held in contact against the body of the user by pressure from the underpants. Furthermore, this type of product usually has a fastening means in the form of self-adhesive glue, which allows fastening inside the underpants. Other types of fastening means are also known, such as different sorts of friction coatings and mechanical fastening means, such as press-studs and hook and loop surfaces.
A significant problem with the previously known products is that they are greatly deformed during use, because they are subject to compression between the thighs of the user. The deformation effect when the user moves is especially significant. When an absorbent product is compressed in the transverse direction, the surface directly available for receiving fluid naturally diminishes. This has the consequence that a large number of conventional absorbent products of this type, to an unsatisfactorily large extent, are incapable of preventing soiling and staining of the leg edges of the underpants of the user.
In order to reduce the leakage which occurs through the absorbent product being compressed between the legs of the user, it has become normal to equip the absorbent products with special fastening flaps. For example, from SE 455,668; U.S. Pat. No. 4,285,343; EP 130,848; EP 134,086; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,608,047, it is known to provide sanitary napkins with flexible side flaps or wings extending from the longitudinal side edges. Such side flaps are intended, during use, to be folded around the leg edges of the underpants of the user, and be fastened to the underside of the underpants. The side flaps themselves form a protection against side edge leakage and soiling of the underpants. Furthermore, the deformation of the absorbent body of the napkin is counteracted through the napkin being anchored on the side edges of the underpants and during use being held stretched out between these.
A considerable drawback with equipping absorbent products with such fastening flaps is, however, that many users regard the fact that, during use, the fastening tabs are visible outside the underpants as embarrassing. This means that even sanitary napkins or panty liners with such fastening flaps, for example, cannot be used when the user wears a swimsuit.
Another disadvantage with fastening flaps is that they are comparatively difficult to handle and require many manipulations to be placed in the right way in a pair of underpants. Furthermore, especially with fastening flaps which extend along a considerable length of the side edges of the absorbent product, it can be difficult to fold the fastening flaps around the curved leg edges of the underpants, without chafing and unaesthetic folds arising in the fastening flaps.
Another problem with the use of the known absorbent products is that the forces occurring when the user moves not only give rise to unwanted deformation of the product, but also cause the material in the underpants of the user to be compressed or to be stretched out during the movements. Because the product is fastened in the underpants, it is naturally influenced by movements of the underpants. The user may feel that the product chafes and irritates the skin in the crotch region. Even if the user does not feel any direct physical discomcort, the movements of the product can give rise to psychological discomfort, because the user is continually reminded by the movements of the product of its presence in the underpants, and the wearing of the product is therefore felt to be especially conspicuous.
From a functional point of view, it is a serious problem that the absorbent product can move with the underpants in relation to the user's body, as the product in this manner can temporarily adopt an incorrect position in relation to the body, even if the product is correctly placed inside the underpants. Furthermore, the movements of the underpants can cause gaps to arise between the product and the user's body, through which body fluids can escape. Movement of the product with respect to the user's body during use is especially unsuitable and undesirable in connection with those products which have been given a special shape in order to better conform the anatomy of the user, or in which the absorption capacity has been optimized with the requirement that the main part of the body fluid which is to be absorbed impinges on the product within a limited predetermined region of the product. It is, for example, normal to equip sanitary napkins with a raised part intended to be in contact with the user's body around the vaginal opening, in order to immediately collect and absorb discharged fluids. Furthermore, incontinence protectors for male users are often formed with a three-dimensional shape which completely or partially surrounds the genitals of the user. There is furthermore a certain risk that the sliding forces which are generated between the product and the underpants during the movements of the user cause the product to be loosened from the underpants. There is obviously then a risk that the product adopts an incorrect position in the underpants, whereby leakage occurs.
In EP 67,465 and EP 425,026, sanitary napkins are described which are made of an upper and a lower part which are mutually joined along one or both of the transverse end edges of the sanitary napkin and in this way have a certain freedom of movement relative to one another. This freedom of movement is sometimes not enough and the two parts in the known sanitary napkins can be influenced during use to an excessively high degree by the movement of each other for total comfort and security against leakage to be achieved.
The absorbent products can also be deformed longitudinally when they are used, since they are bent or flexed to conform to the body of the user inside the underpants. During such bending, transverse creases appear in the surface layer of the products and, sometimes, creases and cracks in the absorbent material inside the product also occur. These transverse creases and cracks serve as fluid-conducting channels and can in unfortunate cases conduct fluid out past the longitudinal side edges of the products with leakage as a consequence. This problem is especially obvious in incontinence protectors which often must be able to receive relatively large amounts of fluid discharged in a short space of time. If, on that occasion, there are creases in the surface layer of the incontinence protector, then fluid can run out of the incontinence protector before it has been able to be absorbed by the absorption material in the protector. Another situation where this type of leakage is annoying is during night use of sanitary napkins. When the user is lying down, relatively large amounts of menstruation blood can accumulate inside the womb and can be discharged quite suddenly when the user turns in her sleep, or when she awakes and gets up. Leakage of blood is naturally especially irritating, because, apart from the disturbed sleep, it also causes staining of clothes and bed linen which may have to be thrown away.
Another type of night leakage is due to fluid running out along the body of the user, for example in the groove between the buttocks, and in this way leaking out past the absorbent body. In order to prevent this type of leakage, it has been suggested in U.S. Pat. No. 4,804,380 to equip the sanitary napkin with a type of hump which should fit into the space behind the vaginal opening and in this way stop fluid from running back on the user. Another way of solving the problem with rearward leakage is to equip a sanitary napkin with a sort of tampon which, in a similar fashion, is intended to prevent fluid from running back. Such a sanitary napkin is described in WO 90/04956.
These products are strongly influenced, however, by the movements and tensile forces which occur in the underpants of the user during use, whereby they are easily displaced when the user moves and the material in the underpants is stretched or compressed. Furthermore, they are experienced by many users as being uncomfortable to wear, since during movement they can chafe and irritate the sensitive skin in the crotch of the user.
With the present invention, however, an absorbent product of the type described in the introduction has been achieved, in which the problem with leakage and deformations known in connection with earlier such products has been diminished considerably. An absorbent product made according to the invention is distinguished, firstly, in that the upper part and the lower part are mutually joined only at the acquisition zone of the product, which is the region of the product which is intended to first be wetted by body fluid, wherein the entire upper part external to the acquisition zone is free from connections to the lower part.
Other features and embodiments are detailed in the appended claims.